The New Kid
by CherryPumpkin
Summary: Norman is all alone on his first day of high school, and he has utterly no hope for himself. Until he meets the Pines twins, and their group of friends. Suddenly, life feels as bright as Mabel's sweaters, and slowly, Norman comes out of his shell. A story about love, friendship, broken families, and secrets. Rated T for swearing and slight implied sexual content.
1. The Twins

**A/N: Okay, so I hope this is good. This is heavily inspired by MechaMax's Patience Equals Progress. Only thing is that they haven't added a second chapter since end of 2014. So, seeing as I really love the plot, I am kinda continuing it? Sorta? But yeah. This chapter's plot belongs to MechaMax; Gravity Falls and Paranorman, belong to their respective owners. Seeing as this is a high school au none of the characters have done anything to due with the supernatural or have anything supernatural about them. They are simply just strange people. I hope you all enjoy!**

It was late at night. The blue of an august sky was gone, replaced with the dark black of midnight. Norman stared at his bedroom ceiling, listening to the arguments of his parents from the kitchen. Did they honestly believe that he couldn't hear them? It wasn't as if he was actively listening, they were just simply loud. It also didn't help that voices seemed to carry in the house.

"He's a freak! Middle school was hard enough for him, but if he keeps up this weirdo business, he's going to be eaten alive!" His father's words drifted up, piercing through the haze around Norman's brain. It didn't bother him, though. His father wasn't wrong.

"He's just different! If those children can't see beyond his flaws then he shouldn't want to be friends with them!"

Though, his mother had a point as well. Maybe people just needed to give him a chance. Norman sighed and rolled over in his bed, staring at his zombie alarm clock. Maybe that was his problem. He was blatantly obsessed with zombies. There were twenty seven posters of old zombie movies adorning his walls, five zombie shirt in his wardrobe, and sixty two (he had counted just last thursday) total zombie themed items decorating the room. Even the bedsheets were adorned by a gravestone with a green and withered hand breaking through the ground. Maybe this was the problem. He stared at his bookbag, a simple black bag, and nodded to himself before sliding out of bed and moving soundlessly over to the bag. His mother would kill him if she found out he was up this late with the first day of school tomorrow. Normal quickly dumped the contents of the bag onto his bed. Faces of cartoon zombies greeted him, printed on notebooks, folders, pencil bags and more. Growling, he pushed everything off his bed. He would use Courtney's old folders and notebooks until he could convince his mother to exchange the zombie ones. Maybe his dad would be on his side for once. Norman chuckled as his father's response formed in his head.

"Glad you're getting over that weird obsession of yours, son!"

Norman crawled back under the sheets, suddenly more tired than he had been in days. Rolling away from the black backpack, he shut his eyes as sleep claimed him.

Norman had not spoke at all in the car ride to school, simply answering his mother's questions with nods and shakings of his head. He had tried, in the beginning of the morning. Tried to smooth down his hair, tried to look more presentable, but had given up- his hair would not lay flat, and no matter what he wore the urge to put his red hoodie on top was stronger than his urge to fit in. When he got his schedule at school, he simply walked to the least populated area of the commons and looked it over. It wasn't a terrible schedule- english 1 honors, geometry, lunch seventh period, which was the worst time to have it, but oh well. Of course, the electives he had (conditioning and theater 1) were never his first choice, but they would be fine. He would be fine.

And that hope disappeared when the bell rang.

People were everywhere, rushing back and forth to get to new classes, and the air filled with even louder shouts from friends telling friends of when they would meet them. Norman grabbed the straps of his backpack as if it was his lifeline. Quickly, he set off through the crowd to lower F Pod, passing pretty girls, jocks, nerds, emos, and then the people who he couldn't place in a social group. And, of course, there were the freaks.

Every now and then he would see Selma, a girl who was one of the few people he could technically count as a friend in middle school, but she was with rather attractive looking people, and didn't really look like she wanted to be bothered. She was even in his second period, though she sat in the middle and he sat in the back and she didn't seem to hear him when he called out to her at the start of class. So, when he saw he in the hallway on his way to fourth period, he simply pretended that he did not see her, and she was far too busy talking to a tall blond boy to notice him. Though it didn't bother him much. The only thing they had in common was Neil, but Neil was now halfway across the country, and they had never did much together even when Neil was around. Simply eat lunch together out of habit, and they never could hold conversation for longer than a few short sentences.

 _Maybe,_ Norman thought, slightly hopeful, _if I don't talk to her, I can really truthfully make a new friend._ Though, in order to make friends one had to talk to people, and sitting quietly in the back of a classroom did not make one many friends.

It wasn't until he was on his way to history during the passing period between third and fourth that he realized if he wanted to make a friend, he would actually have to talk to people. Though, he doubted he could find someone to share an interest with in such a small town.

He sighed as he turned into the classroom before pausing, looking up when greeted with giggles and a fake deep voice before staring at the person in the front of the room. A tall boy stood, a crudely made paper mustache taped to his upper lip, curly brown hair covering his forehead. Glancing back at the room number, then at his schedule to assure he was in the right room, he took the seat closest to the wall in the back, near a rear door. He looked back at the boy, who was evidently the source of the deep voice. The boy was gesturing wildly and telling an obviously fake story. A few girls up front had not stopped giggling since Norman had walked in.

"Yes, but my Ma could not have saved it! If she did, well, where would I be today? Not teaching y'all I can assure you that!" Snorts of laughter erupted around the classroom, and a self satisfied smirk grew on the brown haired boys face. "Now. Any questions?"

"Yes, Mr Pines, I have a question." A large and booming voice called from the doorway. Instantly the laughter in the room quieted, and the boy turned towards to teacher slowly, a small and nervous grin spreading on his face. Norman stared at the tall man who stood in the doorway. Upon his lip was a mustache that looked rather like the one who boy wore.

"Oh come on, Prager." The boy's voice cracked as he pulled off the mustache. "Since when have I been Mr Pines? I thought I was your favorite student. 'Doctor Fun Times', and all that jazz."

The teacher -Prager?- moved to the front of the room, a small smile etched on his face.

" _Mr Pines_ " he began, a very satisfied smirk upon his face, "Next time you decide to honor me with an impression, please remember that I am from South Carolina, not a farm in the middle of Texas. Please do give me some respect. Now, don't you have a class to get too?" The boy smiled, a relieved sort of smile, before heading towards the back door. "And tell Miss Jones that skipping homeroom will only be allowed once a week unless she gets a grade higher than a C." The funny boy snorted in response as the teacher turned to the class. "We start in two minutes."

And then it happened. The moment that felt as if it would change everything. Norman's pale blue eyes followed the boy, when suddenly brown, melted chocolate eyes locked upon them. Had Norman not been sitting right by the door, right by where the boy needed to go to leave, it wouldn't have happened. He doubted he would have thought about the boy again. But, instead, as the boy passed, he whispered to Norman, "Ask about the eighth and a half president if you don't want to do anything all class." And then he winked, ran his hand over the top of his hair, whispered "Neat hair" and left. As simple as that. As _weird_ as that.

Norman never did ask about the eighth and a half president. Asking something like that would probably give him a label as a freak, and he didn't exactly want help with that. The next two periods passed almost the same as the first three: he sat in the back of the groups, only talked when he needed to, and tried to stay out of everyone else's way. But, now a new challenge arrived. Lunch.

Lunch was important. You sat with your friends. You had your table. You had your spot at your table. The only problem was, Norman had no one to sit with, therefor no table, and no spot.

He stood, lunch tray in hand, staring at the mass of students sitting at circular tables. There was not a single completely empty tables, and he simply couldn't go and sit with a random person. He felt a slight breath of relief when he spotted Selma. Well, if they shared lunch he could just sit at her table -there was even a seat there!- and he didn't have to talk to her. She didn't even have to acknowledge his presence, though a 'Hello Norman' would be nice. He decided it. It would work. But, as soon as he set off, Selma and the girls who surrounded her stood up, dumped their trays, and went outside, and a short boy swooped in and took her table. Suddenly his mouth felt dry. His one hope, his last hope, was not gone. He looked around again- maybe he missed a table. And then, he saw someone he recognized. The curly brown hair made it easy. The boy from history, Pines, was sitting at a table, reading a book as a girl in a bright pink sweater gestured widely. He stared at them. They sat at a table closest to the wall, and six empty seats sat across from them. Books and bags littered half of the table. Pines was the only one who had talked or even noticed him all day. He seemed friendly enough. Would it be alright?

He had stared for too long. The girl was now looking at him, head cocked like a dogs, before elbowing Pines. A wave of panic coursed through Norman. The boy, at the girls touch,looked at her, glanced at Norman, said something to the girl and then looked back at his book. The girl rolled her eyes at Pines before looking back at Norman, a grin spreading on her face before she waved him over. He blinked, and pointed at himself. The girl nodded, and her grin grew to seemingly impossible width. Slowly, he made his way to stand in front of the pair. The girl's smile shrunk, but stayed as bright and genuine.

"Hello!"

Norman blinked at how loud she was. "Hello."

"You're a freshman, right? Just sit with us. First days are hard." Norman smiled gratefully at her as he plopped down across from them.

"Gosh your hair is pretty cool. Sorry if that sounds weird, but it is. Right Dip?" She said this all very fast before looking at Pines. His fork, which had been on it's way to shovel corn into his mouth, froze in mid air as the boy glanced at both had the same melted chocolate brown eyes, the same round face, and the same brown curls. Siblings?

"Must take a lot of gel." Was all the boy said. The girl glared at him, before turning back to Norman.

"Excuse my twin. Anyway, I'm Mabel, that's Dipper, and you are?" It took a few seconds for Mabel's question to sink in.

"Oh, yeah, I'm Norman." This got both twins to look up at him, identical quizzical expressions upon their faces. Then, Mabel laughed.

"Norman?" Mabel asked, voice less peppy than it had been.

"Yeah"

"Great" Dipper responded, rolling his eyes. Mabel elbowed him in the gut.

"What? What's the matter with my name?"

"Oh, nothing," Mabel said, spinning pasta onto her fork and shoving it into her mouth. "I just dated a guy named Norman a few years ago, that's all."

"And he was the worst shit to ever live"

"Dipper!" Mabel shouted and slapped his shoulder. Dipper grunted in pain before staring back at his book, evidently deciding to ignore his table mates. "Look." She said, turning to Norman. "He was sweet, just, not exactly what I thought he was." Norman could see Dipper rolling his eyes.

They continued in comfortable silence for several minutes until Mabel loudly exclaimed, "I thought you knew him!"

Immediately, Dipper's head shot up from his book and to his twin, obvious anger burning in his eyes. "I said I thought I recognised him, there is a difference, Mabel!"

Mabel's voice was equal to her twins. "Well, you don't have to act so rudely to him! You are so strange sometimes, Dip! Anyway,"-she switched so suddenly from angry to kind it made Norman's head spin- "what's the difference? You'll never make friends of your own with a mindset like that."

"Please, Mable, they are as much my friends as they are yours!"

"I don't disagree with that, but I was the one who made them. You just kinda tagged along and stuff."

Dipper responded by sticking his tongue out, and just like that the argument was finished. The trip fell back into silence.

 _Beep beep_. The eclectic sound of a text was amplified by the table, and Mabel grabbed for her phone. Her eyes shifted back and forth as she read the text message and typed out her reply, sending it off with a loud sigh before returning her attention to Norman. The pair talked, ignoring Dipper, about simple things.

"What's your favorite class?"

"Either History or English."

"Who's your homeroom teacher?"

"Nelson."

"Ouch, I feel sorry for you. What electives do you have?"

"Conditioning and theater 1."

"Those aren't bad. The theater teacher is pretty cool. Well, it does depend on who you have. I had Lisley for homeroom last year, she was pretty lit. I have the other one -Jonsins or something- for broadway dance this year."

Slowly, the conversation turned towards the twins and basic high school survival, topics much more comfortable to Norman. "This is our second year of high school. It honestly isn't as bad as it seems. Middle school was way worse. And unless you do some weird stuff, you can blend in and go under the radar." She said this as if Norman had explained his plan to her. "But what fun is that? How are you going to leave behind a legacy if you go under the radar? It's high school movies fault. They impose that you have to fit into a certain clique, but, take me for example. I'm a nerd, a jock, fairly popular and one of those weird girls. It's really hard to find the one clique you fit into. Plus, unlike Captain Buzzkill over here, I have a talent for making friends." Seems legit. Afterall, she had lured him in, hadn't he? Although, Dipper had seemed fun earlier that morning.

Suddenly, Dipper stood, gathered his stuff and walked away. Mabel watched him, making small _tsk tsk_ noises. Norman stared after him.

"What was that all about?" Mabel glanced at him, and smiled a bit.

"He's been crushing on a girl ever since we went to this big party at her house. It's strange though, because he pretends to hate her. I dunno, they both are strange though, maybe they would be good together. But anyway, you're always welcome to sit with us! And don't mind Dip."

Norman stared after him. "He seem's… tricky."

"Oh, no, he's super simple. He gets good grades, like ghosts and all that weird supernatural stuff, doesn't pay much attention to things. He's got all these cool interests but really only shares them with me, which is stupid, how does he expect to make friends? And yeah, our group is really tight, but at first Dip just kinda, tagged along and stuff." Dipper did not sound simple to Norman. The boy hesitated before speaking again.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Hmm?"

"In History, Dipper was there. He seemed like such a fun guy. What happened?" Mabel laughed, a real, hard laugh, for a minute or so. Norman waited for her to calm down.

"Oh, that." A grin threatened to spit Mabel's face. "We were, well we were all outside the classroom at the time. Coraline bet him that he couldn't make a scene or something. I think he did pretty well." Mabel was still laughing as she stood up. "Welp, I'm going to go to my locker now. Anyway, see you tomorrow new friend!" She shouted as she sprinted away. Norman felt a smile grow on his face. She had called him a friend.

When Norman go home, his mother asked him what he had been dreading at the beginning of the day: "Did you make any friends today, Norm?"

Norman looked up from his book, glancing at his mother. "Yeah. I did."

A brief look of surprise crossed her face before she blinked and smiled brightly. "That's great, Norman! Tell me all about them."

"I sit with them at lunch."

"Them?"

"A pair of twins" Norman answered, finding it easier to lie and claim that he was friends with both twins instead of just one.

"Well that's great! You know what? Pizza for dinner!" His mother shouted, before smiling and walking out of the room. Norman stared at the door frame. Maybe he didn't have the worst first day possible.


	2. Two weeks

It was two weeks from the first day Norman had met the twins when Norman met Mabel and Dipper's friends. Though, in the time before that, Mabel became one of the best friends Norman had ever had. She never seemed to stop talking, but Norman didn't really care. It was like she knew that he didn't like to talk, and he would much rather listen to her.

She told him about anything and everything. She was in ceramics 3 and jewelry 3, next semester she was going to take ceramics 4 and jewelry 4, she loved English 2, hated Chem -"too much math"- and wanted to take criminology in her junior year. She was saving up to buy an old truck -"It only seats two people, and it has crank windows. And a stick shift!"-, her dad works with computers and had taught both her and Dipper to code last year, her favorite book was To Kill a Mockingbird, she couldn't live without mascara, she made all her own sweaters, she had a pet pig named Waddles, the facts about Mabel and her family never seemed to end.

Norman couldn't exactly say the same about Dipper, who Mabel said was simply treating him with "courteous detachment", but Norman thought that Dipper was treating him with "annoyed hatred". Mabel said that was stupid.

It was a warm but breezy September day when Norman met the twin's friends- well, it was more night, but no matter. Norman sat in front of his locker, reading a book with his earbuds blasting music into his ears. He only noticed Mabel staring at him when she tapped him on the nose.

"Ack!" He yelped, and Mabel cakeled.

"Hey Normy. What's up?" She asked as she slid onto the floor next to him.

"Uh, not much. How are you?"

"Fantastic." Mabel hesitated. "Do you have important plans for this lovely friday night?"

Norman shook his head. "Homework, most likely." Mabel stood up, clapped her hands together and grinned.

"Great! How 'bout a party? Everyone's going, well, not everyone, but Coraline, and Wybie, and Lili, and Raz, and Paci, and Dipper of course, and-"

"Dipper's coming?" Norman asked eagerly. The older boy had remained just as distant and cold to Norman as her had during their first lunch together. But Norman had become determined to get on his good side. He knew he had one- he had seen it when he was with Mabel, or a few other people, and of course on that first day. Why he refused to let Norman see it was a mystery itself.

"Well, he doesn't know he's coming, per se, but he'll come. Unless he want's me to annoy him for the entire weekend, and I will gladly do that."

"So it's not at your house then? I don't know if my parents would be okay with that-"

"It's not like everyone will be pushing you to do weed or something- well, actually, I can't promise that. But all my friends want to meet you, and it isn't like they can meet you before school. Lili and Raz don't get here until five minutes until the bell rings, Coraline always skips first period, and it would be a waste to only introduce you to Wybie." Mabel fixed him with a pouty expression, her chocolate eyes growing in size. "Please?"

Norman smiled. "I'll need a ride and a good lie."

Mabel grinned so wide it looked as if her face was about to split open. "Well you have come to the right girl! We can pick you up, just text me your address, we'll be there at five, and just say I'm helping you with- what's your lowest grade?"

"I have a D in algebra."

"Oh same! But we'll say I'm helping you with algebra."

"But won't your mom get suspicious?" Mabel cocked her head at him, confused. Then, her grin slid off her face.

"Oh, my mom left when I was 13. My grunkle -great uncle, that is- he'll be the one driving. And he won't care. He'll support it. He's a conman. He lives up in Oregon, in this really small town that Dip and I go to every summer. He's staying with us for a few weeks or so."

"Huh." At that moment, the bell ringed.

"Oh, I should probably give you my number shouldn't I?" Mabel dug out a scrap piece of paper and a pink pen with a fluffy pom-pom on top and scribbled down her number. "There you go!" she said happily as she handed it to him. "Oh, and I won't be at lunch today. Dip and I are going off campus for lunch. I would bring you but freshmen aren't allowed off. Anyway, I better scat. Later Norman! See you at five!"

Norman blinked after her before walking down the hallway to his first period.

Why time moved so slowly when you were looking forward to a certain time was something Norman could not figure out. And even though he was told about the party at 7:00, and Mabel wasn't picking him up until five, a good ten hours after, it felt like eternity. At least his mother had allowed him to go- though, she allowed him to study, not go to a party. Explaining why it was so late though, that was a little problematic.

"But why are you going so late?" His mother had asked.

"They, uh, invited me over for dinner. And a few board games as well. So I probably won't be back until eleven or so."

Somehow, his mother bought this lie.

When the grandfather clock in the hallway chimed five o'clock, the doorbell rang. Norman's older sister, Courtney, opened the door and glared at Mabel as Norman came up behind her. Mabel glared back, until she noticed Norman.

"Oh, hey Norman. You ready to go?" Norman nodded, and Mabel grinned at him. She then turned to Courtney, glared at her, and turned around. Norman shouted a "Bye mom, be back later" before running out behind Mabel.

Mabel made him feel extremely underdressed. She wore a short, long sleeved pale pink top that seemed to glow in the haze of the early night, dark denim shorts, a maroon lipstick on and converses in a shade that matched her shirt.

Mabel grinned at him before opening the back door of a very old and very beat up red car. "After you!" Norman nodded to her and moved in, Mable following after him. Dipper sat in the passenger seat, an old man in the driver's seat.

"Stan, this is Norman."

"How's it hangin?" asked a gruff voice.

"Pretty good." Norman answered as the car shifted into drive and sputtered forward. Norman turned to Mabel. "How do you know Courtney?"

Mabel grimaced. "She was in shape up with me last year. We… didn't get along."

"That's the understatement of the century." came Dipper's bored voice from the from seat.

Mabel shrugged. "Oh well. It's history. I got along with her better than Coraline and Lili did, at least." Dipper merely shrugged in response. "Stan, you know how to get there right?"

"Yeah, you made me memorize it, remember?"

"Oh yeah. Can you turn the music up?" Stan complied with the request, and a song that had been far too overplayed during the summer pumped through the speakers.

The rest of the car ride was short, with Mabel mouthing along to the words as she tapped out on a thin smartphone. When the car pulled up to the house of whoever was hosting, Mabel tore off her seatbelt and was out of the car before it had even stopped moving. She moved over to Dipper's door and waited for him to get out before leaning in shouting "Bye Stan!" and slamming the door to meet Norman on the curb. She looked over at Dipper.

"Can you text everyone and ask where they are?" Dipper nodded and walked quickly towards to house. Norman was about to follow him, but Mabel pulled him back to her.

"Look, a few rules. No eating anything set out here- most of it is drugged and you'll get high as a kite. Don't take any alcohol, and try not to do anything illegal. Or get anything spilled on you." Mabel turned around, hesitated, then turned back to Norman. "Also, don't go upstairs or in any rooms with the door closed. Take caution when going to the bathroom."

Norman grinned at her, and she grinned back. "Now, let's get in there!

 **A/N: I hope you all enjoyed! I also hope the characters are all in character, but seeing as they are all three years older, I figured they might be a little more mature. Coraline, Raz and everyone else will be in the next chapter, which I hope to have up by the end of the month. Spring break is soon, so i'll have more time, but I'll be in Disney with a bunch of my friends for eight days so I don't know how much time I will have to write over that. Anyway, thank you to everyone who had read this! Please review!**


	3. Parties

The bodies were too close together, forming a sea of grinding dancers. The smell of alcohol, tobacco and weed hung in the air, and music blasted from the speakers, making it difficult to hear Mabel even when she was shouting. It was lucky she wasn't the tallest person in the world, and her mouth was fairly close to his ears.

"They should be around here, probably at the backyard. Unless they're making out in the kitchen pantry like last time." She trailed off, moving expertly around the mass of bodies. Norman followed, bumping into people who were too drunk or stoned to care.

As Mabel moved in between people, she glanced at her phone, thumbs typing away at the speed of light. "Aha! They're under the big oak." Mabel shouted, before reaching back and grabbing Norman's hand before pulling him behind her. That girl certainly moved fast for being so small. She moved towards the back of the house and threw open the screen door. There were still plenty of people out here as well. She walked down the stairs in two strides, and turned left towards a far off part of the large yard. Whoever lived in this house certainly had a good amount of money.

And the way Mabel moved around made it seem like she was here fairly often.

"Mabel? Are you sure you know where we're going?" Norman asked, still louder than her normally would.

Mabel looked back and laughed. "Of course I do. I came here so many times last year and over the summer." She moved behind a tree, and crossed a small bridge going over a water feature with fish swimming lazily inside before turning into the side area. A large oak tree stood with benches underneath it, and people sitting upon those benches. A fire lit up those faces, and Norman could just make out Dipper's curly hair. "There they are! Hey, guys!" Mabel said this last part louder, drawing the attention away from whatever the group was talking about. A cheer of greeting rose from the group.

Mabel took a seat next to a girl with very blond hair. Norman sat next to a boy with brown skin who slouched. He looked at him, then at Mabel, then put his head sideways.

"So, I take it this isn't someone you're going to suck the face off of?" The boy said, and the group laughed whilst Norman's face turned red.

"How could you tell?" Mabel asked, feigning surprise.

"You're not sitting next to him." The boy replied. Mabel shrugged.

"That's Norman. Norman, you're sitting next to Wybie, and then the guy with the goggles on his head is Raz, the girl with the pigtails is Lili-" Instead of smiling at Norman like Raz and Wybie had, Lily glared. "Next to her is Dipper, but you know him, and then the girl with blue hair is Coraline, and then I'm me, and this-" she pointed at the blond girl next to her- "is Paz."

"Pacifica. Pacifica Northwest." The girl said, a stony look on her face. Norman glanced around, noticing bottles in a few people hands. Most notably, Coraline had two, one of which she handed to Mabel, who took it. Norman stared at her, and she looked at him, feeling his gaze. She laughed at the expression on his face, and Norman quickly returned his face to it's normal, almost-blank state.

"It's apple juice. I hate beer, it's disgusting. Plus, you think he's going to let me drink?" Mabel asked, pointing to her brother. Norman cocked his head, still confused.

"It's so that people don't pressure you. They think you're drinking, they leave you alone. It's why Raz pretends to be high." Coraline added.

"No I don't!" Raz exclaimed, and Mabel gave an over dramatic gasp.

"You mean that's your real personality?" The group burst out laughing, save for Pacifica, who chuckled slightly, and Norman, who simply smiled. Raz glared at Coraline and Mabel.

"At least I have personality" he mumbled to his bottle in retort, before taking a swig. Lili rolled her eyes at him.

"Raz, as your girlfriend, I feel the need to tell you that you have the worst personality out of this whole group." She paused. "Well, it's better than Dipper's."

Mabel's smirk, illuminated by the firelight, looked almost cynical.

The night continued on much like that: poking fun at one another and lots of gossip. At one point, Mabel slipped away to the house, returning with drinks, pretzels, slightly disheveled hair and smudged lipstick.

Coraline, who seemed to be drunk, or close to it, was getting rather excited over some story she was telling.

"So then Mary walks up to us right, and I'm like, like you know? Just she's this bitch who talks rumors about me behind my back but is sweet to my front, like, who does that? Chickens, that's who!" She shouted this last part, making a ripple of laughter sweep it's way through the friends. "Well, she doesn't know that I know, you know? So she tells me- get this- she tells me that that ass, Mitch Reeds, went along and went on a date with her, right, and they were getting steamy on the peak, like real steamy, I mean, not as steamy as Raz and that Beecher girl at homecoming last year but steamy," Raz's face was the same color as Mabel's shoes. Coraline, however, didn't notice. "Anyway, so they're getting steamy and then Thomas Dunn came knocking on the window! Got his ugly little fingerprints on it, by the sounds of it. But who does that though?"

"You've done that, Jonesy." Wybie pointed out, and Coraline waved him off.

"Yeah, but I don't count. Anyway, apparently Mitch was pretty mad, and they got into a fight behind the old theater."

Mabel nodded in understanding. "I heard he never went back to the date, and she's pretty pissed about that." she glanced at her phone and jumped up. "Shoot! It's almost curfew, Stan must have fallen asleep!" Dipper stood up as well, and Mabel looked at Norman. "I'm calling an uber." she declared, then walked back towards the house.

Raz laughed and nudged Dipper's side. "That's your sister though, man. Always on the run."

"To another guy" Lili added as she stood up, stretching. Dipper glared as the rest of the group laughed.

"Oh shut it Lili. We all know the only reason you're not on your 12th boyfriend of the year is that you finally settled for Raz." Lili's eyes blazed, and the group laughed harder.

"I think Raz settled for her, to be honest. I mean, who would want to date someone with that temper." Coraline added, head cocked to the side in feigned thought. She laughed and jumped out of the way to avoid the bottle that Lili threw at her. It smashed on the rocks behind her.

The group began to bicker, and Norman sat back down, looking at the group with surprised fondness. The group, with the exception of Dipper, had all been extremely kind to him, even Lili. They included him, and as Mabel returned, saying that the car was going to be outside in a minute, they all greeted him goodbye warmly, and Raz even told him to look for all of them at school. Pacifica was the only one who objected, saying something about her image, but still waved goodbye as Mabel, Dipper and Norman left, weaving their way through the mass of bodies.

Norman grinned to himself as he entered his house. His first high school party had been a success, and most everyone had been kind to him.

Except Dipper.

 _Why?_ Norman thought. It was impossible to understand. Why did Dipper seem to hate him? He had been so nice to him when he first met him, and then was completely distant and cold.

Norman rubbed at his skull in a feeble attempt to fight off the headache that was edging its way into his skull from all the loud music.

He flopped down onto the couch and stared at the ceiling with as much determination as he could muster.

He decided it right then. By the end of the year, Dipper would like him.

And that was a promise.

 **A/N: Hooray! I finally got it up! Sorry this took so long, we got stuck in Florida because first my grandma got sick and then my aunt gave birth. So when I got back I had a lot of homework to do, plus finals prep. Finals are in two weeks and were all stressing out, but what else is new? Also my friend and I finally called our friend out on what a bitch she is, so now our whole group is divided on who's right and who's wrong. But oh well. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and I hope to have the next chapter up sooner than this one was. Bye loves!**


	4. Speed rounds and books

**A/N: Hooray! I finally got it up! Sorry this took so long, we got stuck in Florida because first my grandma got sick and then my aunt gave birth. So when I got back I had a lot of homework to do, plus finals prep. But now it's summer, so I should be posting more often!**

Monday.

The first day of the week.

And day one of making Dipper like him.

Norman had spent all weekend coming up with a plan, and, if everything went according to plan, he and Dipper would be friends in one months time.

Though with his luck, everything would go to shit and they would hate each other more.

But oh well.

Step one was to find out what Dipper liked, what he didn't like, who his favorite teacher was (thought Norman was fairly certain he already knew the answer to that question) when his birthday was, and anything else about him.

Normally, this would be hard, but Mabel talked so much he was fairly certain he could figure all this stuff out in a lunch period.

Lucky for Norman, Mabel had texted him last night and offhandedly mentioned that Dipper wasn't going to school on Monday.

It was almost going too well.

That monday at lunch, Mabel set down at the lunch table with a waffle complete with peanut butter, bananas and nutella. It smelled almost as good as it looked.

"Is it waffle day?" Norman inquired.

Mabel nodded. "Every Monday is waffle day. Tuesdays are burrito bowls, Wednesday is pasta stuff, Thursday is potato stuff, and Friday is one of the others because they are unoriginal. But everyday has pizza with cardboard and probably-not totally-cow-meat- burgers and definitely-not-totally-chicken-chicken-nuggets."

"Ah." Norman answered, smiling to himself. If a simple question could get the entire lunch menu for the week, learning about Dipper shouldn't be too hard.

"Anyway, have you ever read 1984? Because that's what we're reading for english and it's so boring. Honestly, you would think a dystopian novel would be interesting." Mabel stabbed her waffles in frustration.

Norman hesitated, but smiled a bit. "Uhh, wasn't that book written in like the '50s?"

"Close. 1949."

"I thought that was Animal Farm."

Mabel shook her head. "Nope, Animal Farm was 1945. And if you want specifics, 17 of August, 1945." Mabel looked so miserable relating this information that Norman couldn't help but laugh.

"Why do you know all that?"

"Dipper." Mabel said simply before shoving another piece of waffle into her mouth.

Aha! So they were back on track!

"So, how is Dipper? You said he was sick?" Mabel, shock her head and swallowed.

"Faking. He wanted to work on some coding game, and paid me twenty bucks to cover for him." She looked at him, eyes narrowed. "Why?"

Norman blushed a bit at Mabel's steady gaze. "Oh, no reason. Look, I wanna know more about your friends. Anyway you could answer the questions I have?"

Mabel grinned at him. "Of course! And their your friends now, Norman. Even Lili liked you, and that's a feat."

Norman could feel his cheeks becoming redder. He cleared his throat, and looked down at his sandwich instead of looking at Mabel. "Let's start with Coraline. Any basic facts?"

Mabel thought for a minute before gasping excitedly. "Well, her parents run this gardening catalog online, so of course she loves gardening. Her and Wybie live near each other- his grandma owns the apartment place that her family lives in- and she's been dying her hair since she was nine- though she claims it's natural." Mabel rolled her eyes at this. "She's afraid of small spaces, dolls, not too big on wells, loves cats, hates rats, likes old people, always skips homeroom- though she was complaining about how Prager only lets her get by with one day a week, but we all know she could skip every day and still pass that class."

Norman, sensing Mabel was about to start rambling, cut her off. "Okay. So what about Raz?"

Mabel grinned at him. "His family owns a circus. Well, his dad at least. The rest of his family is, uh, isn't with them anymore. He has a severe phobia of water that is over one or two feet deep, he's known Lili for longer than he's known us, and they started dating a few years ago." Mabel didn't wait for him to state someone else's name.

"Lily is a bitch, but a super lovable bitch who will occasionally skip seventh period to hang out with us. Her dad is some high up CEO or something, and her mom's not around anymore. Oh, she really likes plants. She's known Raz since they were 10 or so.

"Wybie is this big tech nerd. He likes slugs. He and Coraline have known each other since they were twelve or so. He like inventing; if you ever get the chance, ask him about his skull mask, it's like this weird zombie thing. It's great." Norman shifted nervously at the mention of zombies. "Oh, he and Coraline share a cat."

This got Norman's attention.

"What?"

"Oh yeah. He's feral, and super cute. He's a bit weird, like he does that weird head thing."

Norman blinked. "Weird head thing?" Mabel nodded.

"Yeah, that thing that Coraline and Wybie do whenever they're questioning you, you know?" Norman stared at her and she sighed. "You know, this thing?" She put her head sideways so that her ear was touching her shoulder.

"Oh!" Norman exclaimed, suddenly getting it.

Mabel grinned and rolled her eyes before eating more. "Yeah. They say that they picked it up from him."

Norman laughed. "Alright, so what about Pacifica?"

"Ah, well, she's complicated. She's not really our friend, but she hangs out with us at parties, I dunno. The others don't like her. The only reason she's with us is that I threatened I would ditch everyone and spend all my time with Candy, Grenda and Pacifica I they weren't nice to her." Norman blinked.

"Candy and Grenda? Who are they?"

"Two super good friends of mine. They don't go to this school though."

Norman shrugged before popping the big question. "Okay, so what about Dipper?" Mabel swallowed the last bit of her waffle.

"What about him?"

"What's the run down on him?" Mabel cocked her head, her expression radiating confusion.

"I thought I told you all of that when we first met you." She said, gathering her trash onto her tray.

Norman hesitated. He had to admit, he did not expect Mabel to remember that.

"Well, uh, you did. But it was all pretty basic information. I wanna, uh, know a bit more."

Mabel quirked her eyebrow, suspicious. "Like what? We'll do a speed round."

Norman could feel his face heating up.

"Favorite teacher?"

"Mr Prager."

"Favorite book?"

" _A Brief History Of Time_ by Stephen Hawking."

"Favorite game?"

"Titanfall."

"Favorite color?"

"Blue."

"Birthday?"

"We were born on the 31st of August." At this, Mabel began texting, a smirk on her face. _A challenge_ , Norman realized.

"What elective did he take first semester last year?"

"Beginning engineering and beginning computer science."

"What's his third period?"

"He has an off period. Like most of our group at the time."

"Favorite place at the mall?"

"The exit."

"Least favorite teacher?"

"Mrs Bucher. He says you should pronounce her name like bucher, not boo-shea."

"Favorite place to hang out after school?"

"His room."

"Who was his third grade teacher?"

"Mrs Gish."

"Does he prefer your mom or dad?" Mabel's head snapped up at that, her eyes no longer showing off the relaxed and energetic energy look that could be seen so often there. Norman hesitated, before leaning forward the slightest bit. "Are you okay?"

Mabel blinked rapidly, and she shook her head. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. He prefers our- ah- our Dad. He thought Dipper and I how to code and stuff. Dipper really took to it. Me, not so much." She glanced at the clock and stood.

"Bell's about to ring. Better get going." And with that, she gathered up her trash, threw it in the nearest trash can and walked out of the lunchroom.

Okay.

So that was weird.

Norman glared at his phone. Of course Courtney had something going on right after school that was so important she couldn't even take five minutes to drop Norman off at home and now he had to wait until 5 for his mom to pick him up.

Of course.

So that was why Norman sat on a bench outside the office inside the almost empty school, glaring at his phone. This was going to be a long wait.

Or maybe not.

"Norman!" Came a shout from down the hallway. Mabel stood with Lili and Coraline, all three of them carrying stacks of books. The group made their way over to him.

"Hey Norman." Coraline greeted, whilst Lili nodded at him.

Norman looked at the books in their arms. "Do you need help?"

Coraline looked ecstatic. "Oh my god thank you." She said as she and the other two unloaded a few of their books into his arms.

Norman smiled. "Why do you even have these?"

"Wybie." All three girls groaned together. Norman raised an eyebrow and Coraline continued.

"He's building something- won't tell us what, but it's something, and gave us each 20 bucks if we brought all these books home for him."

Lili readjusted the books in her arms. "When we get to his place I swear I'm throwing these at him."

"Be my guest." Coraline mumbled darkly. Mabel rolled her eyes and readjusted her books as well.

"Oh, shut up. Don't forget that you're the reason we're friends with him, Coraline. Let's go put these in your mom's car Coraline." Coraline stuck her tongue out at Mabel, but walked over to the door anyway, opening it with her hips and letting it shut behind her after the group was through. Lili and Coraline were a good yard away from Norman and Mabel when Norman finally spoke up.

"So, are you okay? You got a bit weird at lunch." Mabel looked at him, surprise gracing her features.

"Oh, yeah. It's just a family thing. Nothing to worry about." She grinned at him. "Why are you here so late?"

Norman shook his head. "Courtny had to do something after school and couldn't' take the extra ten minutes to drop me off at home."

Lili and Coraline seemed to hear this. "Wait, Courtney, like, Courtney Babcock? Is she your sister?" Coraline exclaimed, sounding aghast.

Something Mabel had said the night before the party floated back into Norman's brain: " _I got along with her better than Coraline and Lili did, at least."_

He hesitated. "Uh, yeah?"

Apparently that was the wrong answer, as it caused Lili and Coraline to go on a rant about his sister. Though it wasn't kind, it certainly was true. As they reached the car, Coraline turned to Norman. "I would offer a ride, but my mom's car only holds four, so were all filled. But thanks for the help with the books." The three girls smiled, took their books back, and slid in the car. Mabel's head popped out of the window.

"Bye Norman!"

"Bye!" he shouted after the retreating car.

He turned back towards the school.

"I mean, I guess stage one was a success." He said aloud to no one in particular, but, for some reason, it felt like everyone who needed to hear it did.

 **A/N: Okay, so to be honest, I did not feel very happy about this chapter, but I felt that I needed to get it out. Anyway, starting in the next few chapters we'll get more of Dipper and all the other boys. I hope y'all enjoyed, please review!**


	5. When a Trip to the Office Goes Wrong

Norman dropped his stuff down on his desk just as the bell rang announcing that third period had started. As he sat in his seat his geometry teacher, Mrs Hendrick, stood up and started passing out graded papers as the rest of the class started on the warm ups she had written on the whiteboard.

It had been three days since Norman had first completed Stage One of his plan to get Dipper to like him, and Norman hadn't gotten any closer to completing his goal. The next step was to have a conversation with one of Dipper's friends and Dipper, and get Dipper to contribute. So far, even though he had seen the twin's friends around plenty times, no one seemed to be with Dipper, or have enough time to talk except for a brief "hello!" in the hallways.

No, this part of the plan wasn't working out. Until that day.

"Norman!" Mrs Hendrick said, reading off a piece of paper. Norman looked up from his paper. "You're wanted at the front office, and it says to bring your stuff." She walked down to the back of the classroom to hand him the pass. "I trust you know how to get there?" she asked, and Norman nodded as he took the pass and slipped his supplies inside his backpack before quickly leaving the room.

The front office was completely across the school from Norman's math class, which meant he had to pass through the lunchroom. Normally before lunch hours the room was deserted and sickeningly quiet.

Except it wasn't.

In fact, he could hear a considerable amount of noise coming from the area where the vending machines were located.

Curiosity getting the better of him, Norman changed course, going to the source of the noise. As he turned the corner he almost let out a gasp of shock.

There, sitting in a weird oblong circle was Coraline, Wybie, Lili, Raz, and Dipper. They were all talking and laughing loudly, a pile of candy and chips from the vending machine in a pile inside the circle. Mabel sat a few feet away from the rest of the group, large pale blue headphones over her ears, her laptop on her lap and multiple papers and books spread out around her. She was typing furiously, not paying any attention to her friends.

Norman was about to leave when Coraline spotted him. "Norman!" she shouted, waving at him. The rest of the group all turned to look at him, Raz and Wybie looking considerably more kind than Lili and Dipper did.

Mabel either didn't hear or didn't care.

Coraline looked at him. "So what are you doing? Freshies don't have off periods."

Norman looked down at the note in his hand. "I've been summoned to the office to pick up my lunch. I forgot it at home."

Lili snorted and Dipper muttered "Rookie mistake" as Raz rolled his eyes and leaned back to hit Mabel on the knee. Her eyes widened in shock for a moment, before pulling off her headphones to look at him. 80's music pumped loudly from them. "What?" she asked, looking mildly annoyed.

Raz jerked his head at Norman. "Look who's here." Mabel gazed past Raz and looked at Norman. Her annoyed expression disappeared.

"Oh hey Norman!" she waved and Norman grinned at him. Dipper glanced at Mabel.

"How far did you get?"

Mabel's annoyed expression returned. "I still have to do the conclusion." Wybie laughed.

"And we all know how good you are at those."

"Exactly." Mabel said solemnly. She shut her computer and slid over to the group. "So, Normy, why have you graced us with your presence?"

"I was going to the office and heard voices and got curious." Norman answered, shifting uncomfortably at being the only one standing. Coraline clicked her tongue.

"Well didn't you know that curiosity killed the cat?" she asked, and Lili rolled her eyes as Mabel replied "Curiosity may have killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back." in a bouncy voice, a pleasant expression on her face.

Raz laughed before leaning into his girlfriend. "So what class are you missing?"

"Geometry."

"Ew."

Coraline popped a bright pink bubble from the gum that Norman hadn't noticed she was chewing. "Ew is right. Why don't you skip?"

Wybie looked over at the blue haired girl. "T-training a protegee?" She stuck her tongue out in response but still grinned.

Mabel glared at the pair. "Don't encourage him. Norman, you really shouldn't skip classes. It'll come back to bite you one day, and then you'll end up like us- or, more Coraline and Lili than us, but still."

Lili laughed bitterly. "Ah yes, I forgot. Mama Mabel doesn't approve of skipping classes."

"She once threatened to tell my Grandma." Wybie added. Mabel shot a glare at the two as Coraline opened her mouth to speak, a mischievous look on her face.

"But don't worry Norman, she approves of lying. Especially if it's the type of lying where you say you have to go to the bathroom but your really shoving your tongue down Chase Simming's throat in the empty kiln room for five minutes straight."

Norman could feel his cheeks turn red, but Mabel simply laughed and winked at him. "Hey, it was hot. Not only because the kiln was running, mind you." Dipper scowled at his sister as the rest of the group laughed.

Coraline glanced back at Norman and shifted over. "Come on, skipping one class isn't going to hurt." And her eyes were so convincing at Norman couldn't believe it when he set down his bag and sat down next to her.

Both Lily and Coraline cheered, and the rest smiled at their friends.

Except for Dipper.

This is the perfect time to complete stage two Norman realized, and he snuck a glance at Dipper, whose face had adorned a sceptical expression as Raz talked about psychics or something. Raz glanced at Norman. "So what about you, Norman?" Norman looked at Raz, surprised, and stuttered out, "What?"

A snicker rose out of Coraline. "I asked if you believe in the supernatural. And what you believe in." Raz responded, and though his voice was extremely kind, his smirk was sharp.

"Oh." Norman said. "Well, yeah, of course I believe in the supernatural. Ghost and zombies and such." He glanced around at the circle but not one was looking at him like he was an idiot.

Mabel leaned forward. "So what about demons? Aren't they just an extension of ghosts?"

Norman thought for a moment. "Not technically. A ghost is normally has an energy of intrigue fascination and nostalgia, with a touch of a spookiness. A demon doesn't bring any of those feeling, and they attach themselves to something, and normally bring their host a feeling of dread or terror, and intrusive thoughts, you know?"

Dipper stared at him. "Yes, but what about a strong poltergeist? They cause trouble and more often than not don't have positive intent."

Norman shook his head. "Yeah, they may want to kill or whatever, but they don't want to possess. A demon's intentions will always be more selfish, whereas a poltergeist tends to act more out of fear and confusion."

Dipper pondered this for a minute. "But that's not always true-"

"Goodness, don't get him started. I'll never hear the end of it. No, I'm serious." She added as the group began to laugh. She looked pointedly at Raz. "Last time you brought up sirens and mermaids he would not leave my room and kept me up until 5 am with his theories and his complaining about how wrong you were."

Raz laughed harder and Dipper glared at his sister. "You know he was wrong."

Mabel rolled her eyes. "Yes, I don't disagree with you on that point, but the thing is is that I never disagreed with you. So why you kept obsessively telling me that I didn't understand and the go on to tell me something I understood perfectly well was a bit annoying."

Norman cocked his head. "What was he wrong about?" Both Dipper and Raz seemed to perk up, and Mabel groaned before falling backward and placing her hands in front of her eyes in an exasperated fashion as Lili, Coraline and Wybie laughed.

"Well," Raz began, who was quite close to wrestling with Dipper to get the right to speak first,

"We were talking about mermaids and sirens, and I talked about how sirens lured with both their voice and their beauty-" Dipper quickly cut Raz off.

"And I politely", Mabel snorted at this, "informed him that sirens were not beautiful creatures, because mermaids were the ones that lead sailors to their death with beauty. Sirens were instead believed to be half bird half women, who lead sailors to a watery tomb by using their enchanting voices to promise them what they wanted most-"

"Yeah but you said believed. There are other accounts that state them to be beautiful women who lured sailors to their-"

"Raz I think you're forgetting that sirens were legends, not actual creatures." Mabel cut in, sitting back up again. "Actually you both are forgetting that they weren't real things." Both Raz and Dipper opened their mouths to retort but Mabel cut them off before they could start. "Would you pass me the starburst?" Mabel asked, pointing towards the large pile of candy that Norman had all but forgotten about. Coraline digged around as the two boys resumed their argument, and through the pack to Mabel, who stole a few pieces before tossing it back into the pile.

Raz was complaining about accuracy now. "If there were multiple claims claiming different things you can't just pick the one that you like best and decide that that one is fact-"

"I'm not picking the one I like best, I'm going by what was most commonly stated! Because something that's restated thousands of times is more reliable than something that's stated only a few hundred times!"

"In your opinion, maybe, but-"

"Not in my opinion, Raz, it's basic knowledge for someone doing research-"

"So if you found 756,000 things online stating that the Jews were at fault for the holocaust and only 100 saying that it was the Nazis would you believe the majority?" Dipper glared at Raz.

"The holocaust has primary sources in multiple forms like diaries and people who are still living who endured the-"

"Yes but are there primary sources for sirens? N-" Both boys voices were rising now.

"Raz, they wrote what they saw in journals and diaries, both of which are. Primary. Sources!"

Raz was about to retort when Lili took an empty chip bag and shoved it in his mouth to shut him up. Raz glared at his girlfriend as the rest of the high schoolers -including Norman- laughed at him. Lili shrugged innocently at Raz's steady glare.

"What? We were all getting annoyed. Besides, if you wanted to complain about a topic, pick an interesting topic," Lili glanced around with a large smirk adorning her features. "Like psychics."

Dipper looked ready to start another argument until Mabel slapped him upside the head. "Don't you dare!" She shouted, and Dipper glared at her, yet he didn't start another argument.

Norman glanced at Wybie. "Why did you need all those books the other day?"

Wybie cocked his head to the side. "Huh?"

Norman suppressed a grin at the sight. "The other day the girls had all these books from the library and said they were for you. What were you using them for?"

Wybie blushed a bit. "Oh. That. I've been trying to fix up this old car of my Grandma's for when I get my licence next month but I've been failing pretty spectacularly."

"That's an understatement." Coraline mumbled under her breath, and Norman snorted in response.

Norman looked from Coraline to Lili. "Did you end up throwing them at him?"

Lili shook her head. "Only got to throw one each before Mama Mabel came in from the car and put a stop to it." Mabel grinned unapologetically and Wybie glared at Lili. It looked extremely unthreatening.

"To which I am very thankful of."

"I'm just glad you didn't damage any books." Dipper muttered under his breath as he reached for a bag of veggie fries. Mabel grinned at her brother.

"God you're such a nerd." Dipper grinned back.

"Always have been." Dipper muttered as Wybie glanced at his phone.

"You know we should probably get all this junk food together and sorted out because the bells going to ring in a few minutes." The group began to throw the snacks at random, chatting as they did so. Three bags of skittles and a bag of popcorn were tossed at Norman by Mabel.

"Wait, so you know how you said sirens promise what someone want most? That doesn't necessarily mean sex, right?" Mabel asked suddenly, looking at her brother. Dipper blinked at her.

"Well, yeah, technically." Mabel grinned.

"So we have no proof they sirens would ever sing about sex yeah? So how do we know they weren't saying to the sailors that if they got in the water there would be Hamilton tickets with Lin Manuel as Hamilton or something?"

Dipper stared at her. "At the time of the legends that were talking about Hamilton wasn't even born let alone having a musical made about him." Mabel shrugged and looked around at her friends.

Coraline grinned. "Rare plants."

"Babe Ruth rookie cards" was Wybie's input.

Lili shook her head. "I agree with Coraline for once. One little mention of rare plants and I would dive into that water."

Raz grimaced. "Honestly I don't think anything could get me to dive in water, let alone even go out on the ocean."

Mabel grinned maliciously and her expression turned sultry in a blink. She moved over to Raz, her movements slow and calculated, like a dance. As she reached him she caressed his cheek and said in a quiet, musical voice, "Dank memes. The dankest of the dank" before bursting into a fit laughter that set off the whole group. As they calmed down Raz grinned at Mabel.

"Okay, now that might get me to willingly jump to a watery grave." Mabel laughed and winked at him before walking away from the group to where her stuff was still spread out on the ground and gathering it up carless and shoving it in her bag. Norman was still laughing when Coraline turned to him and asked, "So, Norman, what would you jump in for?"

That sobered Norman right up as a million thoughts raised in his head. The ability to not act like a freak all the time. His zombie folders. The ability to skip high school. At the moment he was just really hungry though.

"Right now I would die for some pizza."

Coraline laughed and clapped him on the shoulder just as the bell rang. Norman glanced around. "Well, Norman, I suppose we'll see you later. Bye!" A chorus of goodbyes rose as the teenagers split up, none of them going in the direction Norman was going, unfortunately.

Still, Norman couldn't help but feel as if step two had been completed.

Especially because he now had three bags of skittles.

And popcorn.

 **A/N:** Okay I promise this is the last one for today. Also if you guys love musicals (Heathers, Dear Evan Hansen, Hamilton) I would totally recommend checking out Be More Chill. It's all I've been listening to for the past few months. But it's based off a book of the same name that was one of my favorite books when I was in 8th grade. Also the guy who voices the Squip sounds like Thomas Sanders so that's a plus.


	6. Homecoming Part One

**A/N:** I just wanted to address a question I got from ZeldaSophie and never answered. Norman can not see ghost, he was just bullied because he's strange. I'm hoping to explore this more in later chapters. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

Norman skipped his math class one more time that week, and twice the following week. Every week he skipped at least one class, and even though Mabel often voiced her disapproval, she always vouched for him whenever the security guards would wander by. Norman couldn't really help it, though. Being around the twins and their friends made him feel electric. He'd never really had many friends before, and certainly not a group to hang out with. And anyway, his math teacher was old and batty and never taught anything anyway, so he wasn't really missing anything.

Pacifica would occasionally join the group at their spot by the vending machines, but she wasn't very fun. She simply scoffed at their ghost stories, stared at her phone and insulted the junk food.

The school was in a frenzy, because homecoming was three weeks away. And Mabel was most definitely included in that frenzy. One Tuesday she popped down during third and looked around.

"So, what are we doing for homecoming?" she asked, and immediately Dipper, Lili and Wybie groaned. Mabel simply grinned in return.

"Mabel," Lili began, sounding tired, "do you really want us to do homecoming again?"

Mabel nodded. "Of course! And we're all going." She added pointedly, glancing at everyone in the group. "So Coraline, Lili, Paz and I will go dress shopping sometime this weekend, the boys will do whatever boys do to prepare for homecoming-"

Norman heard Dipper mumble "complain and get bossed around by their sister" but Mabel didn't seem to.

"And then we'll all meet up at someone's house for pictures and food and then go to the dance and dance our little hearts away!" Mabel concluded, looking around expectantly.

Raz looked at Lili. "We could meet at your place, Lils. You've got the nicest house out of all of us."

Lili tilted her head back and forth. "Or we could go to Pacifica's. She's rich, too, you know."

Dipper leaned forward are ruffled Lili's red hair. "Oh Lili, you're perfectly right, but, alas, her father is an asshat and yours is not."

Lili hit him. "Well why don't we go to your house then? You guys have that porch."

Mabel made a humming noise. "Sorry, no can do. Dad's out of town for the next month and Stan leaves to go back to Oregon in three days. No one's allowed over."

Wybie looked at her. "But you're allowed at other's houses?"

"Yep!" Mabel answered, popping the 'p'.

Norman hesitated. "Is it even legal to leave you guys home alone for that long?"

Dipper shrugged and Mabel laughed. "Dunno. Doesn't really matter if it is or not though, wouldn't change anything. Our family isn't exactly the most 'law abiding' family."

Coraline snorted. "You've never spoken a truer word, Mabes."

Not exactly a law abiding family? What on earth did she mean by that? Norman knew that the twins Grunkle Stan was a conman, but he didn't know much about anyone else in their family.

Mabel leaned forward and snatched up a chocolate bar before looked at everyone. "So, boys, it's your job to get a tie and whatever else guys wear to homecoming by like next weekend or something. Hear that, Norman?" She added, noticing how he had been slightly zoned out. "Tie and some other nice clothes."

Norman hesitated. "Me? I'm invited?"

Raz looked at him. "Well, yeah, you think we were just going to make homecoming plans that didn't involve you right in front of you?"

"Unless you're going with friends from your grade." Dipper said, and it was in such a cold voice Norman knew what it was implying. As did Mabel, it seemed, as she threw her chocolate bar wrapper at him along with a very nasty look.

"What?" Dipper asked, a nasty tone in his voice. "It's a legitimate concern."

But Mabel's glare didn't let up. "If it's a concern, then maybe try to sound concerned." she said, an edge to her normally perky voice.

Wybie shifted as the twins stared at each other and cleared his throat. "So, any color schemes or anything? We don't have to match or anything, right? Because my grandma says that I don't look good in colored ties."

Both twins swung their heads to look at him so quickly that Norman was surprised neither of them got a crick. Both, however, looked as though they had forgotten that their friends were there.

Mabel hesitated before responding. "Uh, I dunno. Ask Coraline."

Both Wybie and Coraline blinked and looked at each other before looking back at Mabel.

"Why would he ask me?" asked Coraline, tilting her head.

Mabel waved her off, mumbling a quick "Doesn't matter" before turning to Raz. "Will you please make sure you match Lili this year?"

Raz looked offended as he asked, "What do you mean? Last year I looked fine as hell."

"Well, Lili's green dress didn't really go with your orange bowtie. So maybe this year try to match? Or something?"

Lili laughed. "Yeah, Raz, last year I didn't even want to tell Tamii Smith that we were dates." Raz glared at his girlfriend as Coraline snorted.

"Fine." Raz said. "But only if you don't wear anything handmade to homecoming this year."

Mabel glared at him, but nodded in agreement. "So, everyone is going, we'll meet up at Lili's house, Raz will match, I won't wear anything handmade, and us girls will all go shopping on saturday at noon." She said with finality. Lili sat straighter.

"I never agreed to my house. Or Saturday."

Mabel shrugged. "Too bad, so sad. You guys have good picture spots."

The next couple of weeks past in a blur, and within a blink of an eye every student was shuffling their way into the gym for the homecoming assembly. Norman shuffled in as well, feeling slightly degected. The gym was divided into four sections, one for each grade, meaning that Norman was going to be sitting alone for the whole hour and a half that the assembly promised to take up. Very soon he found himself halfway up the bleachers, squished in between Margaret Perry, a quiet girl with quite a lot of acne, and Timmy Richards, a loudmouthed blond haired boy. The cheerleaders below were barely audible over the marching band and the mass of students all shouting to their friends. He could see Pacifica down with the cheerleaders, and despite her dazzling smile she looked rather annoyed, and kept sending glares at a freshman next to her. Norman looked towards the sophomore section, but he couldn't see the twins or anyone else, and he certainly couldn't see them after everyone stood up. The school's principal, Mr Smith, had just walked into the center of the gym. The roar of greeting from the students was deafening. Mr Smith grinned.

"WELCOME STUDENTS!" He shouted, though the yells drowned out the end of it. "ARE YOU ALL READY FOR HOMECOMING?" Shouts rose from the stands again, and Margaret Perry flinched next to Norman. Mr Smith grinned even brighter before motioning for everyone to become quiet. "This assembly is going to be great. Not only are we finishing our spirit competition but, as always, we are going to have all of our fall sports teams competing in our dance competitions. Don't forget to cheer loudly for the ones you kiddos like. And without further ado, our cheer and poms teams, with a special appearance by man poms!" There was a loud cheer of female screams at this last part as the cheer team ran out onto the mats and loud music pumped through the gym. Norman looked at Pacifica. She was very good, flipping and cheering with a small smile on her face. Her eyes, however, were not on Norman, but instead on the sophomore section of the gym. Norman glanced over, trying to see over the heads of his fellow freshman to see what or who she was looking at, though he had a good idea. Though he couldn't see very well from his seated position, he just barely could see Coraline's blue hair peeking out from other students. He could only wonder for a second about whether or not Dipper and the rest of them were with them as well because at that moment man poms had ran out onto the mat, and Mabel, Coraline and Lili (though she looked like she would rather be sitting) had all jumped up, along with other girls, shrieking and laughing. Mable and Coraline were shaking Lili's arms, as if to make her look like she was excited and giddy, but Norman could tell that she had a faint smile on her face.

Norman caught up with the twins and everyone else after the assembly let out, only to find Mabel complaining about how the spirit competition ended up. Seniors had won ("They win every year. I'm not kidding. Last year the seniors were 1500 point behind the juniors and they still won, even though they only give out 800 points at the assembly"), with the juniors in second ("Well, that wasn't a surprise, they have to, because juniors always win so they might as well give them second") and the freshman in third ("Well, the school has to pretend like they like freshman, because let's face it, everyone hate's freshman because they're so goddamn annoying, so they always give them third, and then the freshman get cocky because they think they're better than the sophomores, but then a few annoy the sophomore football players and get shoved in lockers, and after that they don't bother us, but still!"). She was also complaining about the outcome of the fall sports dance competition, because she, who was on the cross country team, felt like they were jipped. ("I mean, football wins every year just because they dress in drag. Like, sure, drag is great, but the football players just look creepy and pervy, you know? I mean the whole giving out roses thing was cute, but no. They shouldn't have even been in the top three. The SPED kids definitely deserved second, theirs was just so sweet, but come on? Boys golf as third? No. It should have been us. We did the footloose dance!"). Dipper was patting her sympathetically on the back, laughing as she talked, not taking long enough of a pause to let anyone else talk. Finally Raz broke across her as she was getting back on how rigged the spirit competition was, asking "So what time are we meeting at Lili's house tonight?"

Lili, looking relieved at Mabel's ramblings being finished, jumped at the opportunity. "Seven o'clock sharp. Don't come dressed up, we're having lasagna, so we'll all get dressed at around 7:30, which is where anyone's parents who want pictures will come. By 7:45 we'll all be downstairs, taking pictures, and then at 8 we'll leave, and we should get to the school at 8:15, leaving us 15 minutes to get in line and do any other before-event-things."

Dipper snorted. "I don't think we have enough details, Lili. What time will the lasagna be going in the oven?"

Lili glared. "5:45, you dick head." Mabel, Raz and Coraline snorted, and Wybie grinned. Dipper shot a nasty glare at Lili but upturn of the corners of his lips gave him away. "Anyway, be there or don't, I really couldn't care."

Wybie glanced at Lili before asking "Hey, what lunch do you guys have today?"

Norman paused. "It's not normal lunch? I knew classes were shorted but are lunches changed?"

Mabel nodded, rummaging around in her bag for a minute until she pulled out a piece of paper. "Yeah, there's first lunch and second lunch today. So after fourth you either go to lunch or another class, and then you go to class. It's a ridiculously short lunch though, it's like 30 minutes." She handed him the paper, and he scanned the page.

"I've got second." he said simply, looking around at the other teens.

"Awesome, so do I." Raz said, lunging in front of his girlfriend to give Norman a high five, to which Norman returned with a hint of enthusiasm.

"So do we." came Coraline's voice from behind him, and Norman suddenly became aware of how Coraline and Wybie were reading over his shoulder.

Lili shrugged. "Wonder Twins and I have got first." Raz turned to her, a pouty expression on his face.

"What? That means I'll have to wait until the end of school to see you again, Lils."

Lili glared at him. "Oh boo hoo. That's only three hours. You can keep yourself entertained for that long. Or are you too thick for that?"

From behind him Norman could hear Coraline's whispered "Oh, he'll keep himself entertained alright", but it seemed like no one else except Wybie did, who hastily tried to muffle his laughs. Lili glared at him.

"Sorry." He said simply, holding his hands. Lili's glare deepened, but she turned away from him.

"I've got to run to my locker. I'll see you all later." And after giving a swift kiss on Raz's cheek, she walked off down the hallway.

Norman sat at the lunch table, a slice of pizza in front of him. He did not know what to do. He had never had a conversation with Raz, Coraline or Wybie (or Lili, but she wasn't there at the moment) without one of the twins present. He didn't know what to talk about, so he simply sat there in silence as the three older kids talked. He was reminded of his first day when he had met the twins.

"She's a bitch." Coraline was saying, spinning spaghetti onto her fork. "I mean, she's great, and funny, but good lord is she one hell of a bitch."

Raz nodded as Coraline continued. "Worst part is that she's a rich bitch. And it's not like she likes us, she just likes Mabel."

"And even that's a stretch sometimes." Wybie imputed, and Coraline nodded.

"Yeah, well that's true for everyone when it comes to Mabel. She can be a bit much." Raz added.

"Well so can Dipper." Coraline pointed out, and Raz nodded. "But everyone in that family is crazy."

"Well you have to be to name your kid Dipper, don't you?" as soon as the words were out of Norman's mouth, he blushed scarlet and slapped his hand across his mouth. All three of the sophomores looked at him.

"You know that's just a nickname, right?" Raz asked, pure humor in his voice.

Norman shook his head. "Uh, no, it hadn't really occurred to me. What's his real name?"

Coraline made a noise that sounded like she had just lost the boss fight for the fifth time in a row on a video game. "We've been trying to find that out for so long. He's been going by it for so long all his school papers have it, so you can't even hope to hear it when a sub is taking roll or something, and he won't tell us."

Norman paused. "Why not just ask Mabel?"

Raz laughed. "Trust me, we've tried. But she won't spill. Something about 'sibling loyalty' or something."

Wybie nodded. "It's one of Dipper's many mysteries."

And with that, Norman was included into the conversation, learning more and more about the twins past. By the end of lunch, Norman found himself hating how slow the clock was moving.

 **A/N** : Okay, so the ending was bad but I really wanted to get this out. By the way, Mabel's complaints about the spirit competition and the fall dance things are all my views on what my high school does. They're all rigged. I had to add boys golf because last year they had to do a dance to "My Heart Will Go On" so they recreated that Harambe shooting. Long story short, a freshman was the kid, they brought Harambe back to life with some voodoo magic and the cheers were deafening. They, however, did not win, the football players all in drag dancing to "Party in the USA" won. Which was bull shit. Also if you couldn't tell the person that Coraline was complaining about was Pacifica.


	7. Homecoming Part Two

Norman knocked on Lili's door at 6:57, and had barely waved goodbye to Courtney when the door opened. Mr Zanotto was a short man with a kind face and an impressive beard.

"Ah. You must be Norman. Come in, come in, and don't forget to take your shoes off." Norman did as he was told and followed Lili's father into their kitchen. It was huge, with double ovens, a yard long label, fancy appliances, and the whole shabang. Lili, Raz, Mabel, and Dipper all sat at the table, eating lasagna. There was a rouse of greeting, and Raz pulled out a chair for Norman as Mabel handed him a plate. Norman nodded his head in return.

"So, Lili, what were you saying?" Raz asked, looking away from Norman and back to his girlfriend.

"I was just saying that if Pacifica, Coraline and Wybie don't get here soon..." She shot an annoyed glance at the door.

Mabel leaned over tapped Norman on the shoulder before whispering, "She gets like this all the time. Her dad is a CEO for something and it makes her so uptight when it comes to meetings."

Raz, who seemed to hear Mabel, said loudly, "Yeah, but it's adorable when she does it, isn't it?" Mabel grinned at Raz and Dipper pretended to throw up. Lili glared at him.

"Well just because you can't get Pacifica to make out with you-"

Dipper threw his napkin at her. "I do not want to kiss Pacifica. I barely want to be in the same room as her."

Lili made an unconvinced hum as Mabel asked, "So you won't be watching her from the wall like Charlie in Perks?"

Norman cocked his head. "Perks?"

"Of Being a Wallflower." Dipper clarified.

"We just finished it in English." Mabel allaborated.

"So of course she's been comparing all of us to the characters." Lili added, rolling her eyes as she took a bite of lasagna.

Norman nodded absentmindedly. He'd read that book last year after Courtney had finished it. He didn't know much about Dipper and Pacifica's relationship, but he did know that if anyone was a good fit for Charlie, it was definitely Norman. He had the bratty sister, older student friends and only friend from eighth grade gone with their girlfriend pretending she never known Norman or Neil. Thankfully though, Neil wasn't dead, instead he had simply moved to the other side of the country. Though sometimes it felt like he was dead.

Pacifica arrived exactly at 7, and Coraline and Wybie arrived at 7:03, and by the smug look on Coraline's face, it was entirely on purpose. As everyone ate Raz told the tale of last years homecoming, which involved Pacifica throwing a hissy fit when her white dress got dirty, Coraline spraining her ankle, Dipper getting separated from the group for thirty minutes, and Mabel throwing water on a then junior Zachary Richardson when he had refused to leave her alone. Raz had also included a bit where he won a dance battle to win the heart of his fair lady (Lili), but judging by the laughing and rolling eyes this was not the least bit true. By 7:15 everyone was finished eating and Lili begrudgingly lead everyone upstairs, grumbling about schedules.

"Look on the bright side, Lili. We'll probably all be ready by 7:30, so our parents won't even have to wait that long." Raz reasoned as they climbed the large, ornate staircase.

Lili mumbled "Doubtful" as she lead the boys to a large guest room before following Mabel into her own room.

Changing in front of Dipper, Wybie and Raz was an odd experience. While Dipper, Wybie and Norman all stood in separate corners, not looking at each other as they changed in silence, Raz, though he still faced a corner of his own, was talking animatedly about the night to come. No one really seemed to be listening. Within ten minutes all of them were ready, all looking relatively the same, with white dress shirts and black ties. Raz was the only one with a colored tie, a deep maroon that Norman supposed matched Lili's dress.

By 7:45, however, none of the girls had emerged from Lili's room apart from Coraline running across the hall to grab a can of hairspray. At 7:47 Dipper trotted over to see what was taking them so long. As he returned to the guest room he looked sour, and muttered "Hair and makeup. Pacifica isn't even in her dress yet."

But at 7:52 the girls emerged out of the room, Coraline still pulling on one high heel and Pacifica sweeping on a swipe of ruby red lipstick. They all looked very pretty. Lili wore a maroon dress with black lace detail on the top that did indeed match Raz's tie. Coraline was in a sea foam green dress with silver jewels around the waist and collar. Her silver heels made her look taller than ever. Mabel had kept her promise to Raz of not wearing a homemade dress and had instead chosen a dress with a sparkly tight fitting sleeveless top and a high waisted flowy pink skirt. She too had donned silver heels, and her long curly hair was pulled up into an elegant bun. Pacifica's red dress was significantly higher in the front than it was in the back, with a low neckline and jewels dotting the skirt. Mabel ran up to Wybie to fix his tie.

"There!" she said, smoothing it out. "Alright, we should go down for pictures."

"Yeah," said Dipper agitatedly, "especially since you all took so long."

Coraline shrugged and Mabel grinned as Pacifica said, "You can't rush fabulousness."

Pictures went by in a blur, and quick as quick they were piled in Lili's father's car as he took them to the school. Lili was showing off the pockets that her dress came equipped with, to great awe and appreciation from the other girls.

"Well we know who'll be holding our phones when we get annoyed with our purses" Mabel had said.

As soon as they arrived, Coraline was out the door heading towards the line to get into the dance. The dance was being held on the football field, to which everyone remarked how easy it would be to get away with stuff in the shadows of the field. Norman didn't participate much as he listened to the conversation.

"Oh, I hope they play good music this year!" Mabel exclaimed excitedly, rocking on her heels so violently with her excitement that Coraline looked worried.

"Oh, me too." Raz agreed. "Last year it was all rap music- and not a single slow song."

"Well, at least they played Don't Stop Believing at the end." Lili added.

"Yeah, that was good and all, but they didn't play the Cha-cha Slide or Cupid Shuffle! And those are staples." Mabel countered, looking a little pouty.

"They played the first ten seconds of Cupid Shuffle." Dipper said, and Mabel waved him off.

"You just don't care because they played, like, three ABBA songs."

Dipper blushed slightly and glared at his sister. "Look, Mabes, Waterloo is a good song and you know it-"

"Shut up! They're letting us in." Coraline cut across, and Dipper glared at her but quieted.

It was quick to get into the dance, they all just had to show their student IDs and let the PTA mom's search up their names and listen to them blabber about how they shouldn't drink, or smoke, or get creative in the bushes.

There was a large white tent in the center of the field, with lights and plants surrounding it. On both sides of the tent there were four poles with lights strung between them with considerably less people dancing there than in the main tent. Near the entrance of the main tent were benches and picture stops, and farther down was a station with water and more seating. Norman could hear Party In The USA playing loudly from the tent.

"We're going to go check our stuff." Pacific said, pointing a little white tent in front of a shed while leaning down to slip out of her heels. "I can't believe that they didn't tell us that we aren't allowed to wear heels on the field."

"Yeah," Mabel pouted, opening her clutch purse and pulling out her phone. "I spent good money on these."

"Oh who cares? We all know that we would be checking everything by the end of the night, so why does it matter now?" Lili turned to Raz. "We'll meet you all outside the tent. How about by the non tented area? With all the lights?"

Raz nodded and called out "See you in a few" as the girls ran towards the shed.

Waiting for the girls seemed to be the theme for the night. The boys had formed a circle, of which Norman was apart of, and talked about seemingly nothing. It was a lot quieter without Mabel around.

"How long do you think Mabes will keep us out?" Wybie asked, looking at Dipper.

"Well the dance ends at eleven, so probably not past then."

"Well they're all spending the night at Lili's, aren't they?"

"Lili said they were." Raz added, and Wybie breathed a sigh of relief.

"For a bit Coraline was staying that they might just go to the Pink Palace and stay there for the night. Grandma didn't seem too excited..."

"What did your Grandma not seem too excited about?" came a voice from behind them. The girls had returned, and Coraline's head was cocked. Mabel was notably missing.

"Where's Mabel?" Norman asked, and Coraline rolled her eyes.

"She spotted Joanna Bass and Sarah Smith and ran over to say hello. Mabel is kinda like a witch at these things. One second she's on your arm pulling you away for water, and the next-"

"She's running back to the tent to tackle someone else she knows." Lili finished, looking both amused and annoyed.

"Well, she can't know that many people, can she?" Norman asked, running a hand through his hair.

Pacifica snorted. "She's Mabel freaking Pines. She pretty much knows everyone."

"Well, she'll find us. Come on." Raz said, taking Lili's hand. "Let's go dance."

 **A/N:** I feel like this is really short and I'm sorry but at least it's something. Yeah, that took a bit for me to get out. Oh well. I hope you guys had a good holiday season and a very happy New Year.


End file.
